Thursday, 28 September 2017

In Iceland Moss is a common
plant, widely grows in the mountainous region. The moss has a special
characteristic of Iceland’s lava fields. However, the southern coast of Iceland
over Eldraun Lava field is one of the most remarkable moss blankets in Iceland.
The recorded history exposed a devastating eruption created the lave fields in
Eldraun. In 1783 the Laki fissure and the adjoining Grímsvötn volcano poured
out an expected 14 cubic kilometers of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous
gases that contaminated the soil, killing half of Iceland's cattle and horses,
and more than three-quarter of sheep. Moss can be easily damaged and
potentially irreparably. Moss areas are particularly sensitive and damage
caused by footprints and tire marks can take a very long time to heal.

However, in that year, nothing
grew on the fields and no fish found in the sea. This was resulting in famine
killed approximately a quarter of the island’s human population. Therefore,
Laki’s eruption had even more widespread effects. In the years following the
eruption, the climate across the Northern Hemisphere deteriorated. In the
winter of 1784, the North America became the longest and one of the coldest on
record. Thus, massive snowstorm hit the South, the Mississippi River froze at
New Orleans and there were reports of ice floes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Moreover, huge Haze from the
eruption floated east as far away as India weakening monsoon circulations and
leading to drought and crop failures. Moreover, in 1784 the famine that hit
Egypt, as a result of the eruption, killed approximately 1/6 of its population.
Hence, the worst consequences were felt in Europe. The summer of 1783 was the
hottest on record and a rare high-pressure zone over Iceland caused the winds
to blow to the south-east. The poisonous cloud drifted across Europe, and its
inhalation killed tens of thousands. In Great Britain alone, it caused some
23,000 deaths.

As the weather became hot,
thunderstorms became more severe and large hailstones rained down from the sky
causing injury and death to cattle. The following winter was tremendously cold
and result in 8,000 extra deaths in the UK. Even though, in the during the
spring thaw, Germany and Central Europe reported faced catastrophic flood
damage. A series of crop failures in France and the causing poverty and famine
eventually triggered the French Revolution of 1789-1799. Nowadays, the Eldraun
Lava Field looks very serene and tranquil. The thick green moss has helped
softened the rugged landscape, almost disguising Eldhraun’s violent past.

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

There’s a unique beach located 45
km south east of Denham, covered shells for 60km stretch to a depth of 7 to
10m. Shell Beach is a beach in the Shark Bay region of Western Australia, on
the northeastern side of the Taillefer Isthmus along the L'Haridon Bight. Shell
beach is one of only two beaches in the world made entirely from shells. The
beach name derived because of great abundance of the shells of the cockle
species Fragum erugatum. The shells have formed a limestone that is acknowledged
as coquina. However, before Shark Bay became a World Heritage Site, the coquina
was mined and used for the construction of a number of buildings in Denham. Shark
Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, unique marine life found in and near its
waters including dugongs, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, various whales and
whale sharks, and the largest seagrass bank in the world, contributed to the
formation of Shell Beach.

The sea-water in the L'Haridon
Bight has a high salinity due to both the geomorphology and local weather of
the area. The high salinity has allowed the cockle to thrive unchecked, since
its natural predators have not adapted well to this environment. The shells
were once used to build the office walls of buildings in the area, some of
which can still be seen today. This beautiful snow-white beach is made up of
millions of tiny shells transforms into a palette of the most intense greens
and blues - and the water is very salty (hyper-saline), making it easy to float
for those who aren’t solid swimmers. Therefore, L’Haridon Bight has been a veritable
cockle paradise for thousands of years, letting the little bivalves to
propagate, flourish, die, and have their shells wash up on shore over and over
and over and over again, enough times to create a dazzling snow white beach. Nowadays,
special licenses are still granted to mine the shells as a source of calcium
for mulch and poultry feed. However, hypersalinity of L’Haridon Bight keeps out
predators of humans as well as cockles, making Shell Beach a popular place to
go for a swim.

Thursday, 21 September 2017

In South Western of Chinese
Autonomous Region of Guizhou province, there’s a cliff named “Chan D Ya”,
producing the smooth and rounded eggs shaped stones falling to the grounds.
This is a 30 years process as per local people have observed for years as the
eggs ‘incubate’ in hollow overhangs on the cliff and eventually fall to the
ground. The Chan D Ya, meaning “Cliff to Lay Eggs”, formed more than 500
million years ago, contains a certain part of calcareous rocks. It has an
uneven surface but every three decades it emits these odd-shaped rocks. The
peoples of nearby village Gulu have been scratching their heads over several
years as they keep finding impeccably smooth rocks.

The geologists believe the
egg-shaped stones are in result of different erosion of each stone, to destroy
each type of rock and led to the exclusive formation of stone eggs. However,
not sure about smoothness and rounded stones, why the site is composed of
limestone. However, the specific section of cliff, which is part of Mount
Gandeng, is made of calcareous rock that is common in many regions on Earth.

Such formations are considered
good luck premises and those who can get or take the 'eggs' from the stone. Or
may collect from the ground, as they fall with a positive frequency over the
years and carry to their house, they get an amulet. The “eggs” arise in a
time-spaced period; it is about 30 years between the appearances of new oval
forms on the cliff. Chan D Ya, cliff is 19 ft high and 65ft long. The local
peoples have different superstitions, and collect eggs to take home because
they thought; these stones bring good luck and blessing. This is reason, only
70 stones are preserved, however the others may have been sold or stolen.

Wednesday, 20 September 2017

In The Wash, a squarish estuary
on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire, there is a strange
island, flawlessly circular, with a dimple in the middle similar to a huge
doughnut. This doughnut famously recognized as the “Outer Trial Bank”. This is
one of two islands built during the 1970s to study the feasibility of
converting the entire estuary into a fresh water reservoir. The other trial
bank, built before the Outer Trial Bank, is connected to Norfolk by a causeway
on Terrington Marsh.

The island is composed of dredged
sand and braced by limestone gabions, or cages filled with rocks, and have a
2.5-acre central reservoir. It’s rarely included on maps even though it stands
out as one of the highest points on the otherwise flat, marshy coast of the
Wash. It seems various people are inquisitive to what these structures are? What
this peculiar structure is out in the Wash - whether a meteor's landed in the
Wash or aliens have landed or something! The numerous thoughts come in mind. The
concept of constructed Outer Trial Bank was to build a tidal barrage across
half of the Wash to capture freshwater from rivers flowing into the estuary. However,
the plan was failed hugely because the banks were built using mud dredged from
the salt marsh, which was saline anyway. This is salinated the stored fresh
water.

Moreover, the plan was shelved
but not after £3 million were spent in unsuccessful. There’re no systematized
tours or trips to the island, but you can see online videos which will reveal
that it can be reached by some experienced kayakers with knowledge of the tidal
conditions in The Wash. They're very significant as they're major landforms in
the area. They're the only hills in the Wash. Now these artificial islands have
gained novel importance as a breeding bird colony, with around more than 3,000 pairs
of sea birds using it as their nest. They're declining in a lot of their
breeding habitats but here they're doing very well.

Tuesday, 19 September 2017

There are so many huge rocks in
special shapes in of Sur Lípez Province, Bolivia. The force of water and wind
cannot be underestimated, because Mother Nature is a great artist and can shape
any surface into his own will. Similarly, Árbol de Piedra also called
"stone tree" is an isolated rock formation in the Eduardo Avaroa
Andean Fauna National Reserve of Sur Lípez Province. The Siloli Desert, one of
the driest places in the world, features a rocky outcropping with one formation
in particular getting all the attention. The much photographed, it projects out
of the altiplano sand dunes of Siloli in the Potosí Department, about 18km
north of Laguna Colorada.

Siloli Desert has been whittled
down into the exclusive shape of stone trees over time by sand and 120km/h
winds that whip across 4,000m high Bolivian Altiplano in the colder months.
Much looking like wind, sand, and water can sculpt out of the earth! This
particular Bolivian reserve and arid, stark desert horizon coupled with strange
rock formations strike a strong resemblance to the famous surrealist’s work.
Moreover, the base of the rock has been weathered away by wind and time, while
the top remained intact.

The seemingly incredible
structure stands about 23 feet tall and casts its shadow even longer across the
flat sandy desert. The "Stone Tree," shaped like a stunted tree about
7 m high, particularly the thin stem, are due to strong winds carrying sand and
eroding the soft sandstone. This is Bolivia most famous natural places look
like the head of dinosaur in the middle of arid desert which is unbelievable
and especially interesting to see how the colors changing during one hour that
you’d have been there. The more attraction adjacent to Árbol de Piedra are the salt
flats portion, incredible scenery, Red lagoons, green lagoons, white lagoons,
volcanoes, beautiful rock formations, hot springs, geothermal geyser fields and
colorful, rainbow mountain ranges.

Monday, 18 September 2017

The Hoba meteorite has this name
because it is lies on the farm "Hoba West" not far from Grootfontein,
in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It has been exposed due to its large
mass, has never been moved from where it fell. The Hoba meteorite is believed to
have fallen more than 80,000 years ago. In 1920 a farmer, Jacobus Hermanus
Brits discovered Hoba meteorite, when he encountered object while ploughing one
of his fields with an ox when his plow suddenly screeched to a halt. During
this chore, he heard a loud metallic scratching sound and the plough came to an
abrupt halt. He was curious about what he had run into. The obstruction was
excavated, and Brits notified local authorities about the find, it was quickly
determined that this was a meteorite. The site was declared a National Monument
in 1955, though you couldn't visit it until 1985.

The main mass is assessed at more
than 60 tonnes, making it the largest known meteorite "as a single piece.
Moreover Hoba meteo is most massive naturally occurring piece of iron known at
the Earth's surface. It is inferred that the Earth's atmosphere slowed the
object to the point that it fell to the surface at terminal velocity, thereby
remaining intact and causing little excavation. Hoba meteorite is a tabloid
body of metal, measuring 2.7×2.7×0.9 meters, composed of about 84% iron and 16%
nickel and 0.76% cobalt. Due to the presence of a rare radioactive nickel
isotope, experts have been able to determine the age of the Hoba meteorite,
which is estimated at in-between 190 million and 410 million years.

In 1954 the curator of the American
Museum of Natural History in New York tried to purchase the Hoba Meteorite. It
was only owing to transportation problems owing to its weight that the
meteorite remained in Namibia. Immediately following this matter a group of
concerned locals brought the 'near calamity' to light and the following year it
was proclaimed a National Monument. Thus, almost 5 % of the total numbers of
meteorite pieces that fall on Earth are same in their composition to the Hoba
one. They are also huge, but not like this one, at least, not for now.

It is amazing that this meteorite
is not surrounded by a crater. The objects of this size should punch through
the atmosphere at a very high rate of speed and hit earth with ample force to
blast a momentous crater, but no crater is present around the site of the
meteorite. This could be recommends that it fell to earth at a lower rate of
speed than expected. Therefore few scientists’ believed that the flat shape of
the thing may be responsible for its low velocity at impact. The site has now
been much improved and a decent chance to get close up. Even though anyone can
touch it and stand upon. A small tourist center and is visited by thousands of
people each year.